Week #1-b Habits, Ineffective Replacement, and Change

In reading Lesson 1 of the Master Key an interesting concept struck me. It’s not that it was new or something I had never thought of before because I had. I think it was just a great reminder of one of the realities of life and especially one of the realities in my own life. Section 1:37 states, “You will at once see that this a radically new and different idea; most men try to change the effects by working with effects. They fail to see that this is simply CHANGING ONE FORM OF DISTRESS FOR ANOTHER. To remove discord, we must remove the cause, and this cause can be found only in the world within.

The bolded text reminds me that no matter where we go, no matter what we do, THERE WE ARE! We have to change. Our inside US has to change other wise when we replace one place for another, one job for another, one significant other for another we are still in the mix. We are still part of a new outer system but OUR PART is the same. That is until we change on the inside.

Coupling this with Mandino’s discussion of habits in Scroll 1; having a different life is easy. Getting to the change not so much, but BEING a different person is seemingly easy if the work is put in upfront. If the price is paid upfront. Habits are pretty easy to perform. Creating a new habit is the more difficult part but if a practice is adopted which will create a new habit, that action will become easy. WHY? Because habits are often done unconsciously. I took the wrong exit the other day because I took the exit that I habitually take to go to the salon. I was not going to the salon but it was easy to take the wrong exit because that was my habit. Once a habit is in us (we change on the inside), doing that habit is easy and kind of on auto.

It took me a long time to develop a running habit. Now it is deep within me to go running and that running is a good thing that I like and that I want to do.

In the end both of these concepts go together perfectly. We take our habits and our inner world wherever we go. So in an attempt to change our lives we often try to change the outer world but only to find out that we are still the same inside. If we start with the inside we will find that the change we tried to make on the outside can happen and happen EASIER. It took me years to leave my former work. I mean a lot of years. I never could get the courage to leave until I changed on the inside, and that change took work and effort and practice but it got me to where I want to be now.